tent

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tɛnt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tente, borrowed from Old French tente (“tent, hanging, tapestry”),^[2][3][4] from Medieval Latin tenta, literally something stretched out, the noun use of the feminine of Latin tentus, stretched, a past participle of tendere, to stretch (see tend),^[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ten-, to stretch,^[3] from the phrase pellēs tendere, to stretch out skins, that is, to pitch tents.^[4] The notion is of skins or cloth stretched over a framework.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A portable shelter of skins or coarse cloth stretched over poles: 1297 in the OED, probably before 1300 in Barnhart, about 1300 in Etymonline.^[7][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Figuratively an abode or dwelling, as in to pitch one's tent, it is from about 1366.^[7] A sheet or screen of canvas is from 1572,^[7] the silken web of the tent caterpillar from 1599,^[7] and an oxygen tent placed round a patient from 1892.^[7] The verb, to pitch a tent, is from the 1550s (1553, in Douglas's Aeneid),^[3][2] and to camp in a tent from 1856.^[3]

Timeline

• 1297 – a portable shelter.^[7]
• c. 1366 – a dwelling (figurative).^[7]
• 1553 – to pitch a tent (verb).^[2]
• 1599 – a caterpillar's web.^[7]
• 1856 – to camp in a tent.^[3]
• 1892 – an oxygen tent.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A portable shelter of canvas or other material stretched over poles and held by ropes and pegs.
2. Something resembling such a shelter in shape or use.

Verb

1. To camp in a tent.
2. To cover with or as with a tent.

Word family

• tentless
• tentlike
• tentage
• tentmaker
• tent bed
• tent caterpillar

Related words

• tend
• tense
• tension
• tenterhooks

Usage notes

Several other words are spelled tent: a roll of lint used to keep a wound open, from French tente, from tenter, to try (see tempt);^[4][8][9] a deep-red Spanish wine, from Spanish tinto;^[8] and the Scots and northern tent, attention, heed, short for attent or intent.^[8][5][9] In Scotland a tent was also an open-air pulpit.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)